REPUBLICANS: There's Life in the Old Party Yet

Even while suffering presidential defeat, the
Republican Party displayed an extraordinary capacity for comeback. Only
last August political obituary writers were busily anticipating the
G.O.P.'s demise as an effective part of the nation's elective system.
In the wake of Watergate and the divisive struggle between Gerald
Ford and Ronald Reagan, surveys showed that a paltry 22% of voting-age
citizens were willing to identify themselves as Republicans.
Ford's Silky Sullivan stretch run changed the equations even though
it resulted not so much from his own strength as from Carter's
weakness. But the Republicans'...